Gintama Movie 1: Shinyaku Benizakura-hen

This movie is basically a remake of the Benizakura story arc (episodes 58-61) of the series Gintama. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Gintama is a comedy series set in an alternate universe, where Japan is taken over by aliens. It follows the adventures of Sakata Gintoki - former samurai, who is always broke. He works as a “yorozuya” (something like a mercenary) together with two teenagers and does various tasks to make a living. The series are more like a parody of popular anime series and characters. The whole concept of mixing samurai, space technology, aliens and comedy may sound strange, but ... Gintama is really funny and original. However, the Benizakura arc is probably the most action-packed in the whole series. So even those, who don’t like comedy with sci-fi elements, will enjoy the spectacular sword fights.

The Benizakura story itself is kept unchanged. Katsura, leader of anti-government faction, has disappeared. Some believe he has fallen victim to a murderer, who targets samurai on the streets of Edo. Gintoki wants to look for his missing friend, but is given a job. He has to find a stolen sword, the Benizakura. While he is searching for it, Kagura and Shinpachi are looking for Katsura. They all face some dangerous enemies and eventually discover a conspiracy aiming to overthrow the government.

The differences with the TV episodes are not that great. They have re-used about 85% of the existing material. Most of the scenes, the fights and the dialogue are identical. In the movie, they have improved some small animation details, like sword reflections and effects. Some pieces of the background music and some camera angles have also been changed. There are also about 10 minutes of original footage in the movie, with some additional scenes (and some new jokes).

The overall enjoyment for Gintama fans would be 10/10… even though it is just the old episodes pasted together with some minor cosmetic changes. The Benizakura arc is awesome and watching it again never gets old. Those, who haven’t seen the series, can still watch the movie and enjoy it. The story is easy to follow and the action is good. Some may notice that the characters’ background and motivation need more explanation (which is covered in the TV episodes). Also some things (like Elizabeth) in the crazy Gintama world might seem confusing. Anyways, the movie is good, but “newcomers” would probably rate it around 8/10.

For all of those who are skeptical or were skeptical of Gintama, this movie will suck you into the hype. I was once filling the shoes you're wearing right now, but after watching this movie it changed my outlook on how I viewed anime.

This movie's plot comes from episodes 58-61 of the original series, just redone. The story is phenomenal (Gintoki keeps his former friend from destroying Edo).

The art is typical Gintama, as are the character's audio.

What pushed me to love this was that the enjoyment was simply satisfying. From the usual Gintama, I would just get a laugh and that was ... it, but this is the whole freaking package. We finally see Gintoki get serious and it is awesome. His fighting rivals that of Kenshin Himura for all of you Rurouni Kenshin fans (I'm a hardcore one myself).

This movie is amazing. All I can really say is check it out.

"Hey I got a great idea! Why don't we (Sunrise) show our fans something they already seen before and turn into a movie! Wow, great! Yeah, great marketing scheme to pull in the profits."

Is it really necessary for me to explain and describe the plot and characters in this review even though you obviously seen the anime and if not why are you, the reader even going to attempt to watch the movie? You won't understand it.

In all seriousness what was the point of this movie? I thought it was going to be something original, something that Gintama fans never seen before. But it turned ... out to be a remake of a popular arc. I hope I wasn't the only one who was disappointed. Don't get me wrong the Benizakura-hen arc is everything a Gintama fan would want it had action, comedy and adventure but was it really mandatory to remake the darn thing instead of creating something freah and exciting? It takes out the element of suspense and therefore it becomes bland and repetitive. My suggestion: watch the anime.

The standard shonen jump series based movie often have an original story written entirely just for the occasion. . . Or yearly routine, but having a movie based on one of the series many story arcs is either playing it safe with material fans already know of, or it's just simply being lazy. . . And the Yorozuya knows all too well about laziness.

STORY: Gintama Shinyaku Benizakura-hen is the first (And mostly the only) movie for the Gintama franchise, I movie that adapts one of the series' most famous arcs, the Benizakura arc. . . Or more accurately, rehashes the Benizakura arc giving it a ... fresh coat of better animation and a smaller running time than what it took for the anime to get through with it. And in Gintama fashion, the main cast of characters themselves ridicule the idea of the movie ultimately being a rehash, in fact the movie does not care to admit it, the word rehash is even in the title!
But for those who have never read or watched the series, I honestly would not suggest to use this movie as a starting point because despite that Gintama is predominately a comedy series this movie showcases the series in a much more serious light than how it really is. Not that I'm saying that Gintama isn't serious, it is from time to time, it's just this movie will give first time viewers a dead wrong impression of the what the series mood is.

So ultimately this movie is really for the crowd that were already into the series to begin with, so how does it fare with that in mind to people who are already fans of the franchise? Honestly, the movie plays out like any other shonen jump series movie, bad guy stirs up trouble like killing someone, stealing something or causes some kind of troubling commotion. And this movie is three for three, it starts out with one of the series' regular recurring characters losing in a fight with the main antagonist of the film, Nizo, a character that had showed up in a episode prior to the arc that this movie is based on. His reasons for doing so is so that the main antagonist(Of the series, not the film) will recognize him as an equal of sorts, which for to really happen, any gintama fan will tell you he will also need to defeat the main protagonist of the series, Gintoki Sakata, in order for that to happen. Nizo is also using the movie's namesake item, the Benizakura (Or awesome cherry blossom in the english dub... I'll get to that in a bit), a sword with a mind of it's own that infects it's wielder like a parasite slowly turning the user into some sort of 90's sci fi cyborg monster.

And with the main antagonist out of way, I need to talk about the series main trio, the Yorozuya itself. Gintoki Sakata, the dead eye'd, silver haired jack of all trades with an obsession with sweets and shonen jump, if he wasn't the same as he is in the series, then this movie would have some serious problems. Shinpachi Shimura, the straight man with a tendency of being the butt end of every joke, and Kagura, the young alien girl who the opposite of your typical shonen heroine. I want to speak of the group's comedic triumphs, but as I stated above the movie goes into a more serious tone than what the series is famous for, which, for anyone who has read the manga and watched as the anime adds more to the comedy, don't expect the movie to add too much humor, the most you'll get is two jokes, funny jokes mind you, about Warner Bros at the beginning and end of the movie. Like-wise with the jokes, hardly any of the various characters of the series make it into the movie. Granted that the arc that this movie is based on is set pretty far back in the series (Episodes 58-61 and manga chapters 89-97), it is still disappointing to see so little of the recurring characters, especially the shinsengumi.

But to be fair with it's serious tone, the movie displays great action scenes between the antagonist and Gintoki (Though it is almost entirely rehashed from the anime) and ends on a flashy and bloody final battle. And at the very least, if they really had to remake an arc into a movie, they hardly could have chose better.

ANIMATION: It's a constant step up from the tv series that hardly lowers the quality with no signs of characters going off model, and that is all it really is, just a step up from the tv series and it doesn't look quite as great as most shonen series movies do. And despite how well the fight scenes look, except the final battle towards the very end of the movie, it is clearly just a more polished up version of the tv series, but at least that's exactly what we should expect from a rehash.

SOUND: The background is almost entirely just the soundtrack from the tv series, save for the song that play during the final battle of the movie, Bakuchi Dancer by DOES which is a pretty rockin' song. The japanese cast of course is still as great as ever, there's no performance better than Tomokazu Sugita's Gintoki, not even the english dub by Sentai Filmworks (With bad lip flap and all).
The english dub is decent, some performances are befitting of the character they play like Luci Christian's Kagura, most are half and half like Chris Patton's Gintoki Sakata, which he gets the mannerism down and surprisingly does well, but lacks greatly went it comes down to fight scenes, and then there ones that are just flat out disastrous, Mark Laskowski's performance of Shinpachi is one of those ear bleeding performances that makes me want to file a lawsuit for assault especially since he gets the majority of the lines.
Outside of the questionable performances are some very odd translation decisions, like for example the sword Benizakura is literally called The Awesome Cherry Blossom while the honorifics are kept in the english dub like -chan or -san making a lot of the character exchanges sound incredibly awkward and out of place in the english dub.
The english dub is ultimately hit and miss, but could have been worse, they could have gotten Steven Foster to work on it. . . Brrrrrrrr.

OVERALL:
The Good:
+ Animation is a step up from the tv series.
+ Good action scenes

Mixed:
+/- English dub has some competent performances like Luci Christian's Kagura. / Some like Shinpachi's performance nearly ruin the entire experience.
+/- Remake of one of the series most famous story arcs. / Rehash of a story arc rather than being an original story.

The Bad:
- Too serious for a series that hardly ever takes itself seriously.
- Too little of the side characters from the tv series hardly make an appearance outside of the last scene during the credits.

Despite my complain about it's serious nature, I did enjoy myself watching it, both the english and japanese voice overs. But if Sentai Filmworks decides to dub over the tv series, I'd be a bit worried.

**If you are watching this instead of the original episodes, I highly suggest you skip the cutscene after the credits then go back around episode 147. They'll show characters that have yet to appear in the series.

I started watching this show a few weeks ago. After watching 57 episodes of the show, I decided to watch this movie instead of the original episodes (58-61) since many recommended it and said it was better than the original. Before I continue with this review, I am basing my review only on the arc itself and the movie as a whole without relying on the original episodes (58-61). ...

Story (5) : As a movie without relying on the show, the movie is pretty lacking as you need to obviously watch the show (specifically episodes 3-57 before watching this one) because you might or will be confused about what is going on. I found the arc to be pretty generic as it is pretty similar to a lot of Shonens or any action movies and some plot twists were rather predictable.

Art (8): To be frank, I can't say too much about the art since I have to compare it to the original episodes which I don't want to watch (I'm rather lazy and would prefer to move on with the show). But, I liked the improvements of the visuals in comparison to the original series as a whole.

Sound (7): The voice acting is outstanding as usual. The voice actor/actresses really portray the character well and it can really be seen that they enjoy their roles. However, I only had an issue with the BGM. It's quite frankly rather forgetful.

Character (5): The characters are the same characters from the show. Nothing really has changed. But, we get to see a bit of different sides of characters in this arc and there has been a bit of character development. Some of the characters introduced to this arc were rather bland and it was rather hard to empathise with them. I found one specific character's motive was rather weak and cliched.

Enjoyment (7): As usual, the movie had good comedy especially at the start and the end. Like the show, it had random yet entertaining punchlines and the fight scenes were good.

Overall (6): I liked the movie. It didn't quite reach my expectations but I still enjoyed the movie. It had a pretty good comedic start and punchlines throughout the movie. For the series' first serious arc, it was alright. It did have it's flaws like the arc being a generic and conclusion to be a bit lacking. After all, they do have to pave way for the other arcs.

Well, I'd say that it's true that 95% of the scenes in this movie was already seen by the viewers who have watched Gintama from episodes 59 (or something) and so on. But it was great since they showed some scenes that was never seen before.
Everything for me is just perfect, and even though I've already seen this in normal Gintama episodes, I still enjoyed it to the fullest.
I actually thought that they would never dub it again since the scenes are just the same with the episodes we first saw.
But I was proved wrong. Anyway, this movie is still the best!

Its just a copy and paste of a couple episodes of the series and the parts they did take from the series are not that great and the stuff that they added are bland a big dissapointment from a fan of the series

WARNING: REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
NOTE: I will not be comparing to the anime Bt as a movie adaptation


STORY:7/10
its a copy and paste from the anime with some well accepted added scenes which were probably never in the anime the story itself isn't anything great but doesn't let you get bored because of the jokes and other screenplay motions.

ART:10/10
The art is absolutely beautiful they improved It alot with better lighting shadowing etc. You get the point. And also the absolutely amazing fight scene added at the end of the movie (Gintoki and Katsura vs Amanto) was certainly a treat for all the fans of ... the series.

SOUND:10/10
The soundtracks are epic they just make the moment and send shivers down ur spine the OST bakuchi dancer was awesome which made the last fight scene even more epic

CHARACTER:10\10
The characters are as usual awesome and the anime has a villain who doesn't get enough screen time and is one of the villains whose motives actually make sense gintoki and katsura are funny and badass and the rest are the usual awesome

ENJOYMENT:10/10
Even though I knew what was going to happen even though I had seen this already I did not feel bored in the slightest amount and enjoyed the movie thoroughly.

OVERALL:9\10
the movie itself is really awesome but instead of a remake I personally felt they should have made a original movie.

Gintama is a good show. I have to admit that. The comedy of the show is really good. However, this movie only has less comedy and it shows more of its serious side. Is it a good movie?

It is a good movie, but it's not a 10/10 for me.

I believe this is the first Gintama arc that shows its serious side. It introduces, if not, develops characters that links to Gintoki's backstory. The film does show its epic moments. By the ending, it raises more question on Gintoki's past which makes me curious (I still have to watch the anime to find out).

I couldn't score ... the story higher as it is good, however, aside from the amount of questions raised, it isn't something new to the Shonen genre. I do believe that Gintama has something better to offer than this.

For the animation, it is better than its alternative version, it is much more fluid than ever. However, I wouldn't say it is the best animation ever, but it works. For the soundtrack, DOES did a great job on performing these 2 ED performances (I'm starting to like the band). The OSTs on this show is also great.

I enjoyed the movie because of its characters. The comedy and the action of the characters is the reason why I enjoyed the movie. Before watching this movie, you should watch Gintama first. When you enter Benizakura ark, just watch the movie version like I did. I didn't bother watching the anime version. After this, I'll head back to the anime.

Score: 8/10

this movie is pretty much the same as the arc as staed several times by the characters of gintama. Although there was one or two new scenes. In one of those scenes they had my favorite character of all time ( Kagura-chan being my first favorite). Those new scenes made it worth for me.

Sorry, first review but this needs to be known to everyone...

Good movie from a good series (well, as much as I've seen anyway). It's funny, it's got good fight scenes (and animation in general) and a coherent plot (even if it is just a re-hash of a existing story-arc), what more could you want?(besides romance... although I suppose you could say that it's already there...)

All right, to my main concern... So my friend showed me this the other night and this is very minutely a spoiler (even though it's been a solid 4 years), but did anyone else notice a possible Rick Roll when ... Tetsuya and his sister have their longest conversation in the movie (towards the end) when he says he doesn't want to give her up or let her down or hurt her? Seriously, some one let me know if they can see (hear) it, this has been really weighing on my mind since that scene...

As a people, who have seen all gintama series before movies, I can say that this movie as a standalone work is not perfect and not representing all essence of Gintama series.
Despite this, the movie is really well done, develops a few main characters (Katsura, Takasugi, Gintoki and etc.), has humor and drama core of Gintama.

All in all:
Story 8/10 (Rapidly developing story, not like any other Gintama stories, movie format has its drawbacks)
Art 9/10 (Not best, but really good);
Sound 8/10 (Appropriate, but not amazing);
Character 7/10 (It's not possible to show all Gintama charaters in few hours);
Enjoyment 7/10 (Really short to show essence of Gintama ... Series, but everyone can enjoy it);
Overall 7.8/10, rounds to 8/10.

I liked the Benizakura arc. It was good. It was a good mix of the classic Gintama and enough action that it pleased me. Though I wished to see more of the Amanto, it was good.

Story: The story was all around good. Nothing much to say.

The Animation: It was okay, good for episodes meh for a movie.

Music: -

Why you should watch it: Good Action and an amazing arc. If you have already seen the Benizakura arc in the Gintama show then no need to watch it but other than that it was good.

... Final Score: 5/10

Thanks!
-CyanCheetah

With one of the most popular arc of Gintama comes the movie version of it.

Of course, you wouldn’t understand this movie if you haven’t seen the anime version of it. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much because I thought it would be just a compilation of the episodes from the series but I couldn’t be so wrong. I strongly believe that the movie is made even better from the anime version. You can feel the strong touch of a film from this movie which makes it quite different from the series. You will enjoy it just like watching a motion picture.

Because it is ... a movie, the animation is even better.

If you love the anime or even manga version of Gintama, you will surely love this movie.

Gintama: Benizakura was amazing. The duality of comedy & seriousness is beyond what I’ve previously seen in fiction. Thematically, choreographically, and cinematically such a well rounded movie. Sorachi turns what made you laugh into what will make you cry.

This is an amazing re-adaption of the arc and this movie really bumped up the quality with the newer and better adaption of the source material.

If you've been struggling to get into Gintama, I think this is an great Introduction to see if you would like the series (Only do this if you're struggling to get through early Gintama)


Overall I think this was an ... fantastic movie and I couldn't recommend it enough.

I began watching Ginatama less than a month ago and I understand why everyone on this website loves it. I love this movie. I watched it in place of the 4 episodes from the show (that I am going to go back and watch). It's crazy how this show can make such a drastic change from the comical episodes to high intensity episodes and yet still work so well. These type of episodes (and movies) make me miss the light-hearted episodes, even though I just watched 58 of them in a row. However those episodes make me miss the serious episodes. It's almost as ... if it's 2 shows put together, however it works insanely well. I would've liked to see more of the Shinsengumi, but it would've been way too crowded (and they even joked about it in the end credit). What I am saying is that this movie, and series is great. Highly recommend!

“Something that exists for one sole purpose is eternally elegant and beautiful.”

- Takasugi Shinsuke

Gintama: The Movie (or Gintama: Shinyaku Benizakura-hen) is a solid adaptation of a classic arc which is often touted as being what got people hooked on Gintama. While this isn’t true for most, it does make the most sense that this arc was chosen to get adapted into a movie (twice if we are including the live-action films). Most of the important characters, outside of the main trio, are new and the plot doesn’t rely on the context given by prior episodes. This means that it can be tailored more to an ... audience who haven’t watched (or read) Gintama before.

For those who have already watched Gintama this movie will obviously re-tread familiar ground, however, it is a different enough experience to be worth a watch. The usual snarky self-referential humour and fourth-wall-breaking antics are adapted to suit the movie medium; something that the animation team working on Gintama have always excelled at. The series utilises the medium it is being presented in and makes it an advantage. There are also enough changes to make it worth a watch; most notably including the Shinsengumi, retroactively setting up Episode 62, and revising a couple of the scenes to create a more atmospheric experience. There is a nice balance between the old and new which ensures this is a fun watch, even when you know what will happen.

For those who haven’t watched Gintama and are a little bit apprehensive about starting the series, then Gintama: The Movie is a good testing ground for whether it will be something you might enjoy. While you won’t have a deep connection to the characters, they are set up with the series’ usual flare and so you get a strong grasp of their dynamics. The film moves seamlessly between comedy, action, and drama; showing the potential that Gintama has and that, especially the later seasons, go on to easily eclipse. There is enough exposition to get a basic understanding of what is happening without it feeling like a lecture. This limited use of exposition works in this film’s favour as it allows the established relationships between characters to speak for themselves.

Gintama: The Movie enhances the Benizakura arc as an experience, polishing up the plot and exploring the smaller elements that couldn’t be fully realised in the main series. It uses its time in a constructive way that leaves it feeling neither bloated nor empty. The improvement in animation is noticeable and it's nice to see the staff putting their budget to good use; especially when animating Kagura’s reactions. The only issue I had was that some scenes could be a little bit too dark to clearly see what was happening, but these moments were few and far between.

The fight scenes have also been improved; most notably in the final fight which is even more entertaining with the shots feeling more dynamic. This plays into the strengths of Gintama as the variety of fighting styles make it feel exciting. The pacing and soundtrack work well together and, as usual, DOES provides some fantastic new songs which capture the excitement of first watching this arc. It goes to show how much of a good job the team did; picking out the elements that made the Benizakura special and re-creating them. The end is also typical Gintama; loud, fun and a nice way of including all the characters that make Gintama what it is. It makes Gintama: The Movie feel more like an experience for the fans, not just the shameless cash-grab that they play it off as.

Overall, Gintama: The Movie provides a unique balance that informs any newer audience members of what Gintama is without boring those who have already watched the series. While it follows the same plot beats as the main series, the subtle changes are really enjoyable to see and it shows how much attention the staff pay. It really captures the thrill that made the Benizakura arc special to the fans of Gintama and created something new with it.

This was a retelling of one of the better Arcs from Season 1. And it was an extremely good retelling.

Whilst staying true to the original episodes, having better graphics and some original humour thrown in made it an enjoyment to watch.

Honestly I'm not a big fan of movies but the pacing, timing and action shown was extremely good. I was even moved to tears at one point and unusually didn't really lose interest for the hour and a half.

An extremely good first movie, in my tp 5 of movies I've watched to date in fact. Certainly much better than the typical machine gun ... shounen movies that other big series have tended to turn out.

The Benizakura arc of the anime Gintama was one of the first "good arcs" in chronological order. And it shows, the stakes were more reasonable, the setting less absurd and as of season 1 is probably the third, if not the second best arc when it comes to characterization (not character development, Gintama doesn't have much of it).

This re-telling isn't much better than the original, aside from the production value, due to it being a movie. Don't get fooled by its high rating, the move is not worth seeing over the original arc, re-telling is only true because some events needed to be re-fitted into ... a movie format.

Still pretty good, although I zoned out because I already knew how the arc was going to end. But it did feel weird to see the characters so far back into the anime, if it does anything right, it's put into perspective the character progress.

I'm in a weird spot right now because I'm about to review this movie before reviewing the first set of Gintama on MAL (the first 201 episodes). Now, this review is coming from someone who has just gotten into the franchise, so all you old fans out there, don't judge me. This review is not only going to talk about the Benizakura arc, but how the film differs from the series (episodes 58-61) so that those reading this will know which to watch. In case you want to know, I watched the film, then skimmed through the series' episodes.

Let's start with the art. Between the ... series and the film, the film is way better, and I mean WAY better. Obviously the quality of the art and animation in this film are really good since the film came out three years after the arc in the series, but the way the scenes were shown in this film was a huge improvement. There were a lot of "money shots" with Gin in this film, and they were animated really well, but many of them weren't in the series. On top of that, the battle scenes were better in this film, too. In all actuality, all the important scenes were almost identical in animation besides a few of those "money shots," but the last battle especially was much better in the film. The film extended it and the further animation really brought the scene to life.

I'm gonna save the sound for a bit later, so I'll go into the story itself and the characters. I'll refrain from giving my views on the overarching flow with the reset of the Gintama series since I'm saving that for that review, but I do want to say that this specific arc was very interesting to watch given the subject matter. This film felt like it was the beginning of the story of Gintoki, both in story and in development of his character. Both were well done in this film, and the pacing helped to reveal the information in a smooth way. The series, because it was split into four episodes, didn't have a good flow. At least, not when compared to the film. The film really improved the pacing of the plot, and the cliff-hangers at the end of the episodes of the series were seamlessly recreated in this film.

The main selling point of this movie vs. the series, besides the improved animation, has been said to be the extra scenes you get out of the film. Yes, you do get extra scenes, but the series does also have some extra bits. The thing is, though, the extra bits in the series aren't important. It messes with the pacing too much, and it's information you'd get from the movie in a better way. The extra scenes in the film, for the most part, developed Gintoki's character better. They allowed for a deeper understanding of why he lives like he does, though as this is the beginning of his story (for the most part), it remains slightly vague.

The reason this got a nine instead of a ten is just because the first half or so of the film was entertaining, but not mind-blowing. The subplot in this movie is fine, nothing exciting. The surrounding story-building that happens before the battles and before the big stuff in the end was also just fine. It wasn't like it was bad because I found it really interesting, but it just meant that I didn't get EXCITED about the story until the end.

Okay, so the sound. The biggest difference, for me, was the sound design. The story is the same, the character development is slightly lacking in the series, the animation of the scenes was basically the same between the two, but the sound made a serious difference. This is why I'm going to say to watch the film and not the series. The sound in the series way overplayed the humorous parts and ended up killing the serious and emotional parts--even the action-packed parts. This film, while the music didn't wow me, did wonders to set the tone of the scenes. When I went back to watch the series, I was surprised by the way some of the scenes didn't come off as emotional at all because the music ruined it. The film did so much better in all areas.

So, yeah. Watch the movie. If you're worried about missing information from the series, don't be. Besides some narration bits that were probably cut for pacing purposes in the film and some scenes that delivered the information differently, the film is basically a copy and paste of the series in all ways except the music and the quality of the art. Some lines were shortened for the film--again probably for pacing--but nothing too serious. Honestly, the film is way better and nicer to watch since there's no "to be continued" in the middle of the action. It flows much nicer, so if you're like me and watching Gintama for the first time, just skip episodes 58-61 or skim them like I did. This arc deserves to be watched in the best way available.